In an interview that aired Thursday on CNN's "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer," the five-term Nevada senator said, "The president has indicated as commander-in-chief he is going to start drawing down the forces this summer."

Reid also noted the $100 billion the country is spending, calling it a "huge amount of money" that the nation "cannot continue to keep dumping" into the Afghanistan war.

Sharing his respect for Gen. David Petraeus, commander of coalition forces, Reid said, "I've talked to General Petraeus...and he thinks things are going well."

"I hope it's going well," he continued. "But the American people have a ... very short attention span."

(CNN)-In a display of trans-continental cooperation, President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy declare in a co-written op-ed, “It is impossible to imagine a future for Libya with Gadhafi in power.”

“The United States, France, and Britain have been united from the start in responding to the crisis in Libya and we are united on what needs to happen to end it,” they say in the article, set to appear Friday in the International Herald Tribune - the international edition of the New York Times –and also the French daily Le Figaro and British daily the Times of London.FULL POST

(CNN) - A Wisconsin judge on Thursday dismissed one of three lawsuits challenging the state's controversial collective bargaining law.

Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi dismissed the suit filed by Dane County and two officials, County Executive Kathleen Falk and County Board Chair Scott McDonell, saying the county lacks legal standing to assert constitutional claims against the state.

The former Alaska governor will attend a rally in Madison, Wisconsin Saturday sponsored by the Tea Party group Americans for Prosperity, a spokesman for her political action committee confirmed to CNN.FULL POST

Washington (CNN) - As President Barack Obama kicks off the 2012 money race with a series of well-publicized re-election fundraisers in Chicago, Democratic operatives are quietly crisscrossing the nation to raise big money for new independent expenditure groups.

All told, these Democratic third-party groups aim to raise up to $200 million in outside money - that's in addition to the $1 billion Obama's fundraisers set as their campaign goal. The number and size of the independent expenditure groups ballooned last year, thanks in part a Supreme Court ruling that allows unlimited contributions by corporations.

Washington (CNN) - A rider in the budget bill to keep the federal government in operation has triggered fury among some wildlife groups because it would remove certain wolves from the endangered species list.

The attachment affects gray wolf populations in Montana and Idaho.

"Right now, Montana's wolf population is out of balance and this provision will get us back on the responsible path with state management," Sen. Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat, said in a written statement. He said he wrote the language together with Republican Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho.

"Oh, do I wish he would get the nomination," Reid told CNN's Wolf Blitzer in an interview set to air Thursday. "Donald Trump running for president of the United States? I mean, I like the man just fine. But he's not presidential caliber."